Paladino to Reporter: 'I'll Take You Out, Buddy!'

The Republican nominee for New York governor got into a heated argument with a newspaper reporter Wednesday, accusing him of sending "goons" after his daughter before telling him: "I'll take you out, buddy."

Tea Party-backed Carl Paladino was at a Lake George hotel where he was endorsed by the state's Conservative Party. On the sidelines, New York Post State Editor Fred Dicker tried to ask the Buffalo developer to provide proof to back up his suggestion to another reporter that Democratic opponent Andrew Cuomo had carried on affairs.

Cuomo is divorced from Kerry Kennedy, Robert Kennedy's daughter -- Paladino had earlier suggested to a Politico.com reporter that Cuomo had "paramours" while he was married, but he did not offer evidence. Paladino on Wednesday told the Post reporter he would provide the proof "at the appropriate time," but then accused him of being biased for Cuomo. He also grilled him because a Post journalist went to the home of his 10-year-old daughter, who was fathered out of wedlock.

"I wanna know why you sent your goons after my daughter," Paladino said, then added that he would "take you out."

"You'll take me out?" Dicker responded. "How are you going to do that?"

"Watch," Paladino said, leaving the scene, the lobby of the Sagamore conference center.

"Are you threatening me?" Dicker shouted as Paladino left.

Paladino told The Associated Press it was the way Dicker "came into my face that was aggravating."

But Dicker told Fox News that he did not egg on Paladino; rather, he said he was "very nicely" trying to press for details about an allegation that had "never been made public." Dicker rejected Paladino's claim that he was biased.

"I've written fair stories about Paladino and about Cuomo," he said. "He's saying that to try to shift away from the fact that a lot of people think he just smeared Andrew Cuomo."

Paladino spokesman Michael Caputo said afterward that a Post photographer recently put the lens of a camera against the daughter's bedroom window while she was practicing for a school dance and she has had bouts of crying and has been calling her father every day since.

Dicker, though, said he had nothing to do with that story and that the newspaper never ran a photo of Paladino's daughter.

"We did a story about the mother," Dicker said.

The New York Post is a property of News Corp., as is FoxNews.com.

Aside from the confrontation, Paladino earned the endorsement of the Conservative Party Wednesday after the party's nominee Rick Lazio withdrew Monday.